PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday found hardline Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio had violated the constitutional rights of Latino drivers in his crackdown on illegal immigration, and ordered him to stop using race as a factor in law enforcement decisions.

The ruling against the Maricopa County sheriff came in response to a class-action lawsuit brought by Hispanic drivers that tested whether police can target illegal immigrants without racially profiling Hispanic citizens and legal residents.

U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow ruled that the sheriff's policies violated the drivers' constitutional rights and ordered his office to cease using race or ancestry as a grounds to stop, detain or hold occupants of vehicles - some of them in crime sweeps dubbed "saturation patrols."

Snow was nominated by President George W. Bush on December 11, 2007, to a seat vacated by Stephen M. McNamee. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 26, 2008, and received his commission on July 23, 2008.

12
posted on 05/24/2013 4:43:36 PM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

Sheriff joe response Sprechen Sie Englisch? Nein? Sehr Gut! You are under arrest! See they could not speak English, so I arrested them. ( in fine print Joe could ask in Navajo too). english is just derived from a Germanic language so he is actually asking in English.

There was no claim by the plaintiffs in this suit for monetary damages. Their main thrust in this suit could have been to tar Arpaio with a tag of “racist” so as to weaken and divert attention away from Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse’s pending report on Obama’s birth certificate, which could cast more doubt on Obama’s constitutional eligibility for the presidency and could lead to criminal charges of fraud against some of his henchmen.

Actually, liberals have hated Arpaio for years. And I don’t believe for a moment that they are pulling people over based on appearance. My Filipino-born son can very easily pass for a Mexican, but he has never been targeted for anything. Of course, maybe that is because he has a license and speaks English and doesn’t drive around with three times as many passengers as seats...

“Until December 2011, the MCSO operated under the erroneous assumption that being an unauthorized alien in this country established a criminal violation of federal immigration law which the MCSO was entitled to enforce without 287(g) authorization. However, in the absence of additional facts, being within the country without authorization is not, in and of itself, a federal criminal offense.”

Looks like the ruling is based on Obama’s refusal to enforce out borders...

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.